Sing along to this song if you know it… 
The Joy of the Lord is my strength
The Joy of the Lord is my strength
The Joy of the Lord is my strength
The Joy of the Lord is my strength
If you want joy you must ________ for it
If you want joy you must ________ for it
If you want joy you must ________ for it
The joy of the Lord is my Strength
This song has been in my music archive ever since I was able to sing.. But although a childhood memory, it has never been so real to me as it is to me now..
The blank line that I placed in the song is usually changed according to the actions.. The usual words that fill it are: -
i) shout
ii) laugh
iii) clap
iv) jump
Many more words can be used to fill it..
Why out of the blue this song? I don’t know.. Seriously..
What word would I use to fill in the blank? PRAY
Prayer has always been my weakness in my spiritual life.. I admit it now. Openly to all of you.. I’ve at times slack so much in my prayer life that it makes me feel ashamed of myself.. I hold so much responsibilities in church, youth, school, at home and everywhere else but when it comes to the simple responsibility of praying, I fail.. All this while, I’ve been living such a lie.. Most of the time I pray for the sake of praying but without much participation in the prayer, making them just mere, useless words only.
My current 10 month detour to Kedah has taught me such importance of prayer.. Without prayer we are useless because the basic interaction between us and our Heavenly Father is stagnant.. When studying psychology and sociology we all know that interaction and conversation is the basic necessity in every relationship. There is no difference when it comes to our relationship with God. He wants us to worship and commune with Him..
Boy, have I been ignorant about this all this while..
Looking back on the sermon given by Un. Thomas Chung a few days ago in Alor Setar really struck home as well.. He kept pounding on the verse Romans 8:26.
Romans 8:26
“In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express,"
My dear friends,
How true the word of God is.. There are nights here in Kedah that I do feel down and probably as bad as depressed. When hopelessness comes upon me, I would crawl onto my bed and curl up and just cry out Jesus’s name. Tears and sounds come out but not a word.. Yet, I feel comforted.. I feel God’s presence.. I feel God holding me and cuddling me.. I feel PEACE..
In such agony, the Holy Spirit prays for us. When we just do not know what to say, he says it for us.. He prays for us..
Dearest everyone,
I feel a burden to share this with everyone. Let prayer become a habit in our life. Someone once mentioned:
“Martin Luther prays for three hours.. I will never pray longer than half an hour but I will never go for more than half an hour without prayer.”
Wonderful words that we should keep at heart.
Take care all,
God Bless,
Ciao.
p/s: Here’s to all who needs a little encouragement; God Bless. May the Joy of the Lord be our Strength.
